Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

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popmuze

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How do you all respond to reviews?
Admittedly, this is for a boxed set I co-produced and wrote the liner notes.
It came out mid-September and for two weeks I've been on Google Alert without getting a single solitary mention.
Today I realized I'd put in the wrong title.
Now it turns out the thing has been reviewed all over the net!
The reviews are running about ten to one positive.
Of course, it's that one negative review that really sticks in my craw. The reviewer is totally off base and I want to rip his lungs out.
The only reviewer who mentioned the liner notes credited them to the other producer, which was pretty annoying too.
So how do you deal with the annoying negative reviews without completely losing the ability to bask in the totally positive ones?
 

lkp

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Ignore the negative reviews. Obviously, they were all written by people suffering from serious mental disorders. They are more to be pittied than anything else. Only pay attention to the good reviews, which were all written by perceptive near-genuises.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Reviews

To respond to a review, you have to first read the review. I gave up doing that years ago. As someone once said, if you believe the good reviews, you're honor bound to believe the bad ones, as well.

So I ognore both.
 

Manat

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I agree with IKP. Bask in the wisdom of the those with good taste and discernment who have the intellectual ability to appreciate your genius, and ignore the mental midgets who only want to tear you down. They are all jealous and don't appreciate you like we do.

Congrats btw!
 

veinglory

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Generally I don't. If it is a reader's personal blog I might drop a comment thanking them, but the review isn't for me.
 

PeeDee

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I don't respond, whether it's accurate or not. That's not my place. And if they review my stuff in the future, and think that I might still be reading and watching, then they might be inclined to change up what they say.

And there's always the danger of trying to reply perfectly normally and winding up sounding like Anne Rice to someone.
 

Susan Breen

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You do the best you can do and you just have to hope that a reviewer sees that. But I have to say even the teeniest bit of criticism hurts. On the other hand, a compliment feels so good! This is not a life that allows for a lot of self-protection.
 

Novelhistorian

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There will always be reviewers who need to knock something or someone down to feel good about themselves. Not all negative reviews fall in that category, but those that do I find both the hardest and the easiest to dismiss. Hard, because they really do stick in my craw. I had one like that about my first book, in which the guy attacked me for everything, including the dedication I wrote to my wife, from which he inferred certain things about me. That enraged me. But I also began to think that if he picked on that, he was a pretty poor specimen . . . and subsequently, I found out that he'd written a book on a tangentially similar subject, which I hadn't quoted. Much easier to dismiss.
 

Laurawrites

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reviews

Take all of them with a grain of salt. Some may have valuable information, some not so much.

I would agree that you never reply to either. Readers can tell the difference between a professional and well thought review and a pile of rubbish that was slung together.

I hate to hear that, popmuse. It sounds like an awful situation.

Don't let the "reviewer" get to you. We've all had the "reviewer." He (or she) is never to be questioned. Instead of pursuing his or her own literary dreams, they always find someone to target because the work wasn't written the way they wanted it. Not that they'd actually put forth the effort to write it, mind you.

After all, they are the "reviewer." They carry the weapon of opinion in their hands.

Sarcasm can be your best friend:)
 

popmuze

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Just to clarify, I didn't mean actually respond, as in write to the person. I just meant how you respond internally.
Although, one early reviewer got a fact completely wrong in his review so I wrote to him at his web site and, what do you know, a day later he'd corrected the review.
 

Chumplet

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I'd like to just see one, positive or negative. Then I'll stop obsessing about whether the book is any good, or if I should waste my time promoting it if it doesn't hold anyone's interest. If I get negative reviews, I'll move on and push the next book. If I get positive reviews, I'll do a little dance and put it up on my blog or sumpin'.

(I know I have one on Amazon but between you and me, it was a friend. Shhhh....)
 

maestrowork

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I do read reviews, but I try not to treat them as critiques. They're just opinions. And if the review is way off the mark, I tend to just brush it off (and wonder if the reviewer actually read the book).
 
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